By Elena Agarkova
May 2009
RUSSIA, Lake Baikal, Irkutsk (Siberia)
Dressed in black, they march against construction of new nuclear plants,waste incineration, and high-rise developments, against police brutality,neonazism, political, religious, and ethnic oppression. Their fathers andgrandfathers espoused communist beliefs. Their ideologicalgrand-grandfathers include Russian aristocrats like Count Leo Tolstoy,Mikhael Bakunin and Prince Peter Kropotkin, who advocated individual libertyand dismantlement of the state.
The anarchists have branches in several cities across the country. InJanuary of 2002 they formed a loose coalition named "Autonomous Action."Their website states that their overarching goal involves destruction of theState and all its institutes, and creation of self-government by thepeople.i Their overall numbers remain small, but these young men and womenplay an active role in modern political opposition in Russia. They arecertainly active enough for the Russian police to begin to take a keeninterest in them. On May 1 of this year the Irkutsk police arrested eighteenanarchists who took part in the annual May Day demonstration, on charges ofhooliganism and violently resisting arrest. I knew one of them, a 23-yearold young man named Igor, through his work at a local environmental NGO,Baikal Wave. When the administrative judge in charge of the cases took fourout of eighteen, including Igor's, to test the strength of police evidence,I decided to attend the court hearings and talk to the people involved.
The anarchists' activism in environmental issues may seem puzzling at firstglance, but upon closer examination it makes perfect sense. One of the mostobvious connections between modern anarchism and environmentalism lies intight state control over much of Russia's economy. Who makes decisionsregarding development of oil fields, construction of uranium-enrichmentcenters, hydro-electric dams, and pipelines? The federal government, throughits agencies, bureaucracy, state-owned monopolies, and oligarchs who answerKremlin's bidding, with little or no public input. So general opposition togovernmental authority, espoused by anarchists, logically translates intoopposition to state's policies towards the country's natural resources. Theanarchists agree with the view that the country's political elite profits byexploiting Russia's natural wealth while average citizens bear the brunt ofthe resulting environmental degradation.
Anarchism has had a long history in Russia, and many different schools ofthought have made their mark on the country's politics and culture. LeoTolstoy towards the second half of his life became a Christian anarchist,setting out his criticisms of the government and the organized church in"The Kingdom of God is Within You" and other works. A pacifist and avegetarian, Tolstoy called for a society based on compassion, nonviolenceand freedom. He borrowed the title of a book written by the French anarchistPierre-Joseph Proudhon, "La Guerre et la Paix," for his masterpiece "War and Piece."
In 1857 the tsarist government sent Mikhael Bakunin, a nobleman who would ina few years become one of the most influential Russian anarchists, intoSiberian exile. Upon moving to Irkutsk (Bakunin's second cousin was thegovernor of Eastern Siberia), he became part of a political circle thatresented St. Petersburg's treatment of Siberia as a colony (even then thecapital siphoned off the region's wealth), and advocated creation of aUnited States of Siberia, independent of Russia and possibly part of the U.S.
By the end of 19th century non-pacifist anarchist cells staged terroristactions in Moscow, participated in the revolutionary uprisings, and ledpeasant revolts in the Ukraine. But even though anarchists took part in therevolutions of 1917, they disagreed with Bolsheviks, rejecting the idea ofthe dictatorship of the proletariat. As Bolsheviks came to power, theysuppressed and eliminated anarchists along with other political opponents.More than sixty years would pass until anarchists re-appeared in Russianpolitical life, including in Irkutsk. In March of 1980 a student ofphilology at the Irkutsk State University published the first (hand-written)issue of a magazine dedicated to anarchist ideas. Eight years later theformer student gave an interview to the official magazine called SovietYouth, in which he tried to distinguish anarchism from anarchy: "Anarchy iswhat's happening in our country right now. Anarchism, to us, is purposefulwork towards creating a grass-roots democracy, or government by the people.We oppose violence and therefore support federalism, as an effort to avoidsituations which can lead to civil war, through accommodation of interests.We advocate self-governance, as an absolute right to inner autonomy, andpartylessness, as a renunciation of group struggle for power. Anarchism is anon-party movement for stateless socialism. This doesn't mean that politicalparties should be prohibited, only that no one of them should be in power."
What is anarchism? The word probably connotes chaos, disorder, and violencefor most people. Its etymology comes from the Greek anarchos, which simplymeans "having no ruler." The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines anarchy as1) absence of government; 2) a state of lawlessness or political disorderdue to the absence of governmental authority; 3) a utopian society ofindividuals who enjoy complete freedom without government. The definition ofanarchism, on the other hand, states that it is a political theory holdingall forms of governmental authority to be unnecessary and undesirable andadvocating a society based on voluntary cooperation and free association ofindividuals and groups.
Perhaps weary of the negative associations that most people have with theword anarchy, today's anarchists often call themselves anti-fascists(however, even though almost all anarchists ascribe to anti-fascist views,not all anti-fascists are anarchists). This label has its downsides too,despite the mythological status of World War II for most Russians. Russianneo-nazis have stepped up their level of violence lately, attacking migrantworkers, people with non-Slavic looks, liberal journalists and lawyers. Theanarchists' anti-nationalist views have also made them a target. One of themurders took place in Angarsk, a city 30 kilometers away from Irkutsk, twoyears ago.Angarsk is an industrial town, built mainly by prison labor. It used to be a"closed city," missing from the maps and train schedules. Several highlypolluting enterprises functioned in the city over the years, including theAngarsk Electrolyzing and Chemical Combine (AECC), established in 1954 toproduce enriched uranium for the Soviet nuclear program. The complex alsooperates one of Russia's two large conversion facilities producing feedmaterial for uranium enrichment facilities (uranium hexafluoride). Eventhough it is not as radioactive as uranium, depleted uranium hexafluoride isa dangerous, reactive substance which forms highly toxic uranyl fluoride andhydrofluoric acid upon contact with water vapor. The government has notreleased information regarding exact amount of radioactive waste that hasaccumulated at the AECC secret, citing "commercial secrets."Environmentalists estimate that there may be as many as 250 thousand tons ofdepleted uranium hexafluoride on AECC's territory.In 2006 then-President Vladimir Putin raised the idea of creatinginternational nuclear enrichment centers. He stated that such centers wouldgive countries transparent access to civilian nuclear technology withoutprovoking international fears that enriched uranium could be used for covertweapons programs by "rogue" nations. Russia's plan called for building firstsuch nuclear enrichment center on the base of the AECC.In March 2007 the International Atomic Energy Agency deputy director generalYury Sokolov stated that the agency supports the idea of setting up aninternational uranium enrichment centre in Angarsk and will provideguarantees for the project. Sokolov described the center's fundamentalpurpose as bolstering the nuclear nonproliferation regime. He expected over30 countries interested in developing their nuclear power industry to becomeRussia's partners in the project.The initial purpose of the Angarsk uranium enrichment center seems to havefaded into the background as Russia struggled to attract potential partnersfor the project. By the end of 2007 Russian officials used another argumentin support of the proposal, assuring "energy autonomy for nations." Firstdeputy prime minister of Russia, Sergei Ivanov, said that due to thedepletion of hydrocarbon reserves, the world is increasingly looking tonuclear energy as an alternative. He added that oil and gas supplies werehighly contingent on military and political situations, which have beenunstable of late in the main producing regions. Ivanov also said that anycountry willing to contribute money to the Angarsk uranium enrichment centerwill receive fresh uranium supplies for its own nuclear programs from thefacility. Critics of the project pointed out that Ivanov's assertion openedthe Angarsk nuclear fuel supply to anyone with the cash to pay for it.Environmentalists opposed the project for several reasons, including thefact that creation of the uranium enrichment center in Angarsk will greatlyincrease the amount of radioactive waste at the AECC. Some critics see theproject as a ploy by the federal government to make money off dumping othercountries' nuclear waste in Russia.The first public protests against the Angarsk uranium enrichment centerstarted in Irkutsk at the end of 2006. In April 2007 environmental activistsheld a rally under the slogan "No Chernobyl at Baikal," which theycharacterized as a protest "against the environmental colonization of theBaikal region." In the summer of 2007 local environmentalists andanarchists, joined by activists from Moscow and the Far East, organized a"tent city" in Angarsk to express their opposition to the uranium enrichmentcenter. On July 14, before the protest camp began functioning, local policeofficers took ten activists to the Angarsk police station for questioningand identity checks. The activists reported that Federal Security Serviceagents conducted the questioning itself.The protest camp officially opened on July 20. The local administrationinitially opposed the protesters' plan to hold rallies in selected areas oftown, stating that they scheduled "other public events" in those locations.The protesters persisted and managed to receive permission. It turned outthat the administration "misinformed" the anti-nuclear activists and no"other public events" have been scheduled anywhere in town after all.In the early morning of July 21, 2007 "a group of young men armed withknives and bats stormed the anti-nuclear tent camp in Angarsk." Theprosecutor's office reported that out of eighteen people present in the campat the time, eight received serious injuries. One young man, IlyaBondarenko, died at the hospital. Ilya was an anarchist from the city ofNahodka in the Russian Far East. Another two remained hospitalized with headconcussions, broken arms and legs. According to the prosecution's report, atleast 13 young men from Irkutsk and Angarsk, ages 16 to 22, participated inthe attack. The police arrested several of them the next day, and the youthtestified that they attacked the camp in retaliation for a beating a friendof theirs allegedly suffered from "anti-fascists." The camp activistsreported that the attackers burned their tents and belongings, stole theirpersonal things, including passports, and cursed out anti-fascists. The campparticipants had no doubts that they were attacked by neo-nazis, even thoughlocal police initially denied that they even have nazi followers in Angarsk.Igor, who participated in the anti-nuclear camp, told me that they receivedwarnings about a possible attack for several days in a row. One of the localboys said he got a text message on his phone advising him not to visit thecamp that night. "The police also warned us, from the very beginning, thatwe were in a criminal area and that we should leave," said Igor. Campparticipants wondered whether a connection existed between the local police,who performed daily identity checks on the camp activists, and theattackers. "The organizers [of the attack] definitely were neo-nazis. Therest were just people they knew, because in reality there are not that manyof them and it would've been difficult for [the nazis] to gather a crowd of20 or 25 people. Some of the attackers said later that their brother calledthem, asking to 'join in', or a friend invited them." I asked whether theseguys really showed up just to beat up people they didn't know personally. ToIgor that did not seem strange. "What do you think youth violence is?"However, he thought that the attack was a big event for its organizers."They had a plan of our camp, knew who they wanted to beat up, and who wassleeping in what tent. One of our daytime visitors must have been a scout oftheirs." Still, Ilya, the young man who died in the hospital from theinjuries he received during the attack, may have been an accidental victim."The [local neo-nazis] could not have known him even though he was a famousactivist in his town and many, even the fascists, respected him," said Igor.Our conversation took place outside of administrative court building duringa break in the hearings. The administrative judge acquitted two of Igor'sfriends the week before. She agreed with the defense that the police failedto prove any elements of the alleged crimes and relied on inadmissibleevidence. Police reports had only general accusations of the anarchists"cursing obscenities at the government and the police," throwing smokegrenades, and resisting arrest. In court police witnesses gave inconsistenttestimony regarding all charges. For example, some police officers testifiedthat "all of the anarchists yelled obscenities." The mayor who personallyarrested Sergei, one of the first anarchists to be tried, could not say forsure whether Sergei cursed or not. Another policeman testified that Sergeidid yell obscenities but when asked for specifics, said that Sergeicriticized the government, the president, and the local administration.Police evidence had other serious flaws. Two people who signed policereports as "attesting witnesses" testified in court that they did not attendthe demonstration and did not see the arrests. Instead, as they walked bythe police station two hours later, a policeman asked them to come in forseveral minutes. The "witnesses" signed all eighteen arrest reports withoutreading them. At the hearings the judge asked whether police explained tothe witnesses their rights and responsibilities. "No," said the young womanwho signed the papers accusing the arrested men. "Why didn't you read thereports?" The girl blushed. "This is the first time for me. I've never donethis before."Igor hoped that the judge would dismiss his case "by analogy," but he couldnot be completely sure. The police chose to separate the cases instead ofcombining them, even though they involved the same charges, same witnesses,and same evidence. The lawyer who represented Sergei told me that thiscomplicated defense, since different attorneys represented each person. Theyhad to arrange for the witnesses to appear in court several times to repeatthe same testimony. "The witnesses can get confused and say somewhatdifferent things each time. Every attorney may have a different point on thebest way to defend his client. We don't have time to coordinate the defenseand we cannot combine the cases at this time." The lawyer in question,Alexander Dubrovin, said he took Sergei's case after one of the communistorganizers of the May Day rally called him and asked for help. Alexander,who is semi-retired, took the case for free. "Am I to ask for money from apenniless organization?" He has been an attorney for twenty years and itappears that he has often done pro bono work for the communist party in thepast. He thought that authorities arrested the anarchists to discredit thelocal communist branch and to make it harder for the party to receive rallypermissions in the future.Not everyone thought that the demonstrators pursued pure ideologicalmotives. One of the policemen who testified at trial as a witness said to methat "either the youth has nothing better to do or someone is sponsoringthem." This police officer, dressed in plain clothes, followed the anarchistdemonstrators the entire time of the May Day rally. At trial he claimed thathe received second-degree burns after a hot substance landed on his head andjacket. He told me that he did not want to file any charges, especiallysince he did not see who threw the substance in question. "But my bossordered me to go to the hospital and file a report. I said, 'What's thepoint? It's not going to hold up in court anyway.'" He worked at thecriminal unit and initially was surprised to hear that the head of localpolice ordered his unit to participate in following the May Daydemonstrators: "We usually just deal with petty thieves."
Angarsk is an industrial town, built mainly by prison labor. It used to be a"closed city," missing from the maps and train schedules. Several highlypolluting enterprises functioned in the city over the years, including theAngarsk Electrolyzing and Chemical Combine (AECC), established in 1954 toproduce enriched uranium for the Soviet nuclear program. The complex alsooperates one of Russia's two large conversion facilities producing feedmaterial for uranium enrichment facilities (uranium hexafluoride). Eventhough it is not as radioactive as uranium, depleted uranium hexafluoride isa dangerous, reactive substance which forms highly toxic uranyl fluoride andhydrofluoric acid upon contact with water vapor. The government has notreleased information regarding exact amount of radioactive waste that hasaccumulated at the AECC secret, citing "commercial secrets."
Environmentalists estimate that there may be as many as 250 thousand tons ofdepleted uranium hexafluoride on AECC's territory.In 2006 then-President Vladimir Putin raised the idea of creatinginternational nuclear enrichment centers. He stated that such centers wouldgive countries transparent access to civilian nuclear technology withoutprovoking international fears that enriched uranium could be used for covertweapons programs by "rogue" nations. Russia's plan called for building firstsuch nuclear enrichment center on the base of the AECC.
In March 2007 the International Atomic Energy Agency deputy director generalYury Sokolov stated that the agency supports the idea of setting up aninternational uranium enrichment centre in Angarsk and will provideguarantees for the project. Sokolov described the center's fundamentalpurpose as bolstering the nuclear nonproliferation regime. He expected over30 countries interested in developing their nuclear power industry to becomeRussia's partners in the project.
The initial purpose of the Angarsk uranium enrichment center seems to havefaded into the background as Russia struggled to attract potential partnersfor the project. By the end of 2007 Russian officials used another argumentin support of the proposal, assuring "energy autonomy for nations." Firstdeputy prime minister of Russia, Sergei Ivanov, said that due to thedepletion of hydrocarbon reserves, the world is increasingly looking tonuclear energy as an alternative. He added that oil and gas supplies werehighly contingent on military and political situations, which have beenunstable of late in the main producing regions. Ivanov also said that anycountry willing to contribute money to the Angarsk uranium enrichment centerwill receive fresh uranium supplies for its own nuclear programs from thefacility. Critics of the project pointed out that Ivanov's assertion openedthe Angarsk nuclear fuel supply to anyone with the cash to pay for it.Environmentalists opposed the project for several reasons, including thefact that creation of the uranium enrichment center in Angarsk will greatlyincrease the amount of radioactive waste at the AECC. Some critics see theproject as a ploy by the federal government to make money off dumping othercountries' nuclear waste in Russia.
The first public protests against the Angarsk uranium enrichment centerstarted in Irkutsk at the end of 2006. In April 2007 environmental activistsheld a rally under the slogan "No Chernobyl at Baikal," which theycharacterized as a protest "against the environmental colonization of theBaikal region." In the summer of 2007 local environmentalists andanarchists, joined by activists from Moscow and the Far East, organized a"tent city" in Angarsk to express their opposition to the uranium enrichmentcenter. On July 14, before the protest camp began functioning, local policeofficers took ten activists to the Angarsk police station for questioningand identity checks. The activists reported that Federal Security Serviceagents conducted the questioning itself.
The protest camp officially opened on July 20. The local administrationinitially opposed the protesters' plan to hold rallies in selected areas oftown, stating that they scheduled "other public events" in those locations.The protesters persisted and managed to receive permission. It turned outthat the administration "misinformed" the anti-nuclear activists and no"other public events" have been scheduled anywhere in town after all.In the early morning of July 21, 2007 "a group of young men armed withknives and bats stormed the anti-nuclear tent camp in Angarsk." Theprosecutor's office reported that out of eighteen people present in the campat the time, eight received serious injuries. One young man, IlyaBondarenko, died at the hospital. Ilya was an anarchist from the city ofNahodka in the Russian Far East. Another two remained hospitalized with headconcussions, broken arms and legs. According to the prosecution's report, atleast 13 young men from Irkutsk and Angarsk, ages 16 to 22, participated inthe attack. The police arrested several of them the next day, and the youthtestified that they attacked the camp in retaliation for a beating a friendof theirs allegedly suffered from "anti-fascists." The camp activistsreported that the attackers burned their tents and belongings, stole theirpersonal things, including passports, and cursed out anti-fascists. The campparticipants had no doubts that they were attacked by neo-nazis, even thoughlocal police initially denied that they even have nazi followers in Angarsk.Igor, who participated in the anti-nuclear camp, told me that they receivedwarnings about a possible attack for several days in a row. One of the localboys said he got a text message on his phone advising him not to visit thecamp that night. "The police also warned us, from the very beginning, thatwe were in a criminal area and that we should leave," said Igor. Campparticipants wondered whether a connection existed between the local police,who performed daily identity checks on the camp activists, and theattackers. "The organizers [of the attack] definitely were neo-nazis. Therest were just people they knew, because in reality there are not that manyof them and it would've been difficult for [the nazis] to gather a crowd of20 or 25 people. Some of the attackers said later that their brother calledthem, asking to 'join in', or a friend invited them." I asked whether theseguys really showed up just to beat up people they didn't know personally. ToIgor that did not seem strange. "What do you think youth violence is?"However, he thought that the attack was a big event for its organizers.
"They had a plan of our camp, knew who they wanted to beat up, and who wassleeping in what tent. One of our daytime visitors must have been a scout oftheirs." Still, Ilya, the young man who died in the hospital from theinjuries he received during the attack, may have been an accidental victim."The [local neo-nazis] could not have known him even though he was a famousactivist in his town and many, even the fascists, respected him," said Igor.Our conversation took place outside of administrative court building duringa break in the hearings. The administrative judge acquitted two of Igor'sfriends the week before. She agreed with the defense that the police failedto prove any elements of the alleged crimes and relied on inadmissibleevidence. Police reports had only general accusations of the anarchists"cursing obscenities at the government and the police," throwing smokegrenades, and resisting arrest. In court police witnesses gave inconsistenttestimony regarding all charges. For example, some police officers testifiedthat "all of the anarchists yelled obscenities." The mayor who personallyarrested Sergei, one of the first anarchists to be tried, could not say forsure whether Sergei cursed or not. Another policeman testified that Sergeidid yell obscenities but when asked for specifics, said that Sergeicriticized the government, the president, and the local administration.Police evidence had other serious flaws. Two people who signed policereports as "attesting witnesses" testified in court that they did not attendthe demonstration and did not see the arrests. Instead, as they walked bythe police station two hours later, a policeman asked them to come in forseveral minutes. The "witnesses" signed all eighteen arrest reports withoutreading them. At the hearings the judge asked whether police explained tothe witnesses their rights and responsibilities. "No," said the young womanwho signed the papers accusing the arrested men. "Why didn't you read thereports?" The girl blushed. "This is the first time for me. I've never donethis before."
Igor hoped that the judge would dismiss his case "by analogy," but he couldnot be completely sure. The police chose to separate the cases instead ofcombining them, even though they involved the same charges, same witnesses,and same evidence. The lawyer who represented Sergei told me that thiscomplicated defense, since different attorneys represented each person. Theyhad to arrange for the witnesses to appear in court several times to repeatthe same testimony. "The witnesses can get confused and say somewhatdifferent things each time. Every attorney may have a different point on thebest way to defend his client. We don't have time to coordinate the defenseand we cannot combine the cases at this time." The lawyer in question,Alexander Dubrovin, said he took Sergei's case after one of the communistorganizers of the May Day rally called him and asked for help. Alexander,who is semi-retired, took the case for free. "Am I to ask for money from apenniless organization?" He has been an attorney for twenty years and itappears that he has often done pro bono work for the communist party in thepast. He thought that authorities arrested the anarchists to discredit thelocal communist branch and to make it harder for the party to receive rallypermissions in the future.
Not everyone thought that the demonstrators pursued pure ideologicalmotives. One of the policemen who testified at trial as a witness said to methat "either the youth has nothing better to do or someone is sponsoringthem." This police officer, dressed in plain clothes, followed the anarchistdemonstrators the entire time of the May Day rally. At trial he claimed thathe received second-degree burns after a hot substance landed on his head andjacket. He told me that he did not want to file any charges, especiallysince he did not see who threw the substance in question. "But my bossordered me to go to the hospital and file a report. I said, 'What's thepoint? It's not going to hold up in court anyway.'" He worked at thecriminal unit and initially was surprised to hear that the head of localpolice ordered his unit to participate in following the May Daydemonstrators: "We usually just deal with petty thieves."
Sergei Baksheev, Dubrovin's client, is a young man studying to be a lawyer.He became interested in anarchism after he saw a movie about a Ukraininananarchist Nestor Makhno, who in the early 1920s led an anarchist peasantarmy in a revolt against both the Bolsheviks and the White Army. No currentpolitical parties appealed to Sergei before that. He told me that localcommunists may have had several reasons to help the arrested anarchists."The Communist Party has gotten old. They need new blood. They are verydogmatic, even though they sympathize with us."
The fact that communists need younger recruits can be witnessed by anyonewho attends one of their rallies. Pensioners, old men and women who workedtheir entire life for the State and have seen their savings and theirpensions vanish, make up the vast majority of people in attendance. Thisyear's May Day demonstration in Irkutsk was no exception. Old men with caneswalked side by side with a small, tight-knit formation of young men in blacksweatshirts, who carried black-and-red banners. One banner identified themas "Organized Siberian Antifascists." A banner in the middle of the groupstated, "Self-governance is the way to freedom." A video posted on YouTubeshows that as the group passed by the Irkutsk Art Museum, hand flaresiiibegan to fly out of their formation, leaving trails of smoke and landing onthe sidewalk with a loud hissing noise. The people who walked nearby did notappear concerned. A few minutes later the police descended on the group andbegan to drag them away. Some of the old ladies tried to stop the policemen,yelling, tearing at their uniforms and even trying to block the road for thepolice van.
Igor told me that even though the local anarchists have attended May Dayrallies for five years in a row, they have not had problems with policeearlier. However, police has been showing interest in their activities."When you begin to participate in political activism in Russia, at first youare fine, but as soon as you are 'spotted,' they begin to work on you." Iasked him what he meant. "I think they enter you into some database. Ihaven't seen it myself but based on what I heard from others, they start adossier on you. I must have 'blown my cover' sometime in 2006. By that Imean that when we sent in notices of demonstrations, we included ourpersonal information. Of course it doesn't just vanish without a trace, andthe public safety police documents it. In 2006 the G8 summit took place inSt. Petersburg, and a lot of anarchists, as well as leftist activists ingeneral, went there to protest. Here [the authorities] put a hard stop toit. In Irkutsk two or three of our guys planned to go, but all of a suddenit turned into a [Hollywood] thriller. [Police] were spying on people'shomes, following them, putting pressure on them at work not to go. In theend three of our guys left, but only one made it to St. Petersburg. Theothers were taken off the train along the way."
Igor said that afterwards police started "visiting" him under differentexcuses. "They'd come to my home saying, we have information that your sonserved time, and we are checking all those who have been in prison. What dothey mean, I served time, if I never had? So they started to take aninterest in me. At first I got scared. I mean, it's always unpleasant whenstrangers come to your house and start saying something strange to you. Ikept thinking that it will affect my studies somehow, but it didn't. Theheavy stuff started after the [anti-nuclear] camp in Angarsk. The day beforeour final conference two officers showed up at my house, and under variousexcuses took me and my dad to the police station. I managed to leave, but mydad stayed and the head of the station gave him a talking-to. There areplenty of such examples that happened to others, too."
Igor was born in Irkutsk and received his degree in international affairsfrom the Irkutsk State University. He has an air of asceticism about him,which could be the result of his veganism. He got interested in anarchismduring his college years. I asked him what he found attractive about it."The theory itself, that a man determines his life himself, that there is nohigher authority or structures which dictate [the terms] to you. That isvery appealing to me, that I can decide how I want to live, how I choose mylife path. That in principle society should be organized according toprinciples of justice and not according to market laws or laws of thepolitical elite. In general society should strive towards justice, for allof its members, as opposed to laws of force." When asked what justice meansto him, he replied: "That people are equal, that everyone has equalopportunities. The state does not exist, because if there is any suchstructure and it has even a modicum of power, it will still dictate. As longas it has power, it will abuse this power." He said he believes thateveryone in a community must respect the rights of others. "Complete freedomdoes not mean anything that's good for me. Of course you must not harm othermembers of the community."
One would think that after centuries of revolutionary upheavals, spilledblood and resulting dictatorships Russians would discard idealism, but Igorand his friends surprised me. They have even organized businesses based onanarchist principles. "In Omsk, for example, I talked to people who createdteams which renovated houses, and divided proceeds equally. They didn't havea boss or someone running it, a director who would first take all profitsand then re-distribute them. Right now our friends in Irkutsk have a projectdistributing Linux, the free alternative operating system for computers. Twoor three of them organized an enterprise based on libertarian principles,meaning they are not in it to make lots of money; they are distributing anon-corporate product, and they charge only for their services."
To me such enterprises seemed similar to Israeli kibbutses. "If you takecommunism in its pure state, it has very much in common with anarchism,"acknowledged Igor. "An anarchist commune is really the same as a communistsociety, that's why it's often referred to as anarcho-communism. Manyanarchists sympathize with "leftist communists," the non-authoritarian ones.Often [anarchism and communism] are mutually complementary." However, Igorconsiders himself a man of practice and doesn't pay too much attention totheory. "What's the point of theory? So we'll write a few really good books,distribute them, people will read them and not do anything. If they don'tactually try to build this society, nothing will happen. You have to try itout in real life. That's why I'm always a bit skeptical of theory - I alwaysthink about how you can realize it in practice."
I asked Igor what changes he would like to see happen in Russia, inpractice. "I'd like to see people really use at least their political rightsto the full extent. That they don't go to jail for this, that there is nomoral or social pressure on them. Also, certain social justice, but the mostimportant thing is self-autonomy, that people stop depending on statestructures and begin to organize their lives themselves. There are some verygood examples [of such autonomy] in the Irkutsk community, of peopledefending their homes and their territory against high-rise constructionprojects. This is a great example because most of the people involved weregrandmothers. They formed a powerful nucleus and I think they even wonseveral law suits. It was very simple. People self-organized and were ableto defend their backyards. And at first they did not ask for help from anypolitical parties. Only later, when they had the first break-through,different parties and politicians started to come in, offering theirservices, trying to climb on the bandwagon."
When I asked him whether he considered most people in Russia to beapolitical, he disagreed with the form of my question. "It is not entirelycorrect to say that they are apolitical. First, what do we mean by politics?For me politics, at its basic, is not about parliamentarians or sessions atthe Duma [the Russian parliament]. My convictions are politics. How I buildrelations with others is also politics. That is politics in the larger senseof the word. How I build relations with a certain group of people. Forexample, I find fascism or Nazism unacceptable. That's my politicalposition, and it's politics, because I project it somehow, I try to showpeople what I consider wrong."
But he did admit that Russians had low direct participation in politicalissues. "Direct participation in political life, in elections or in specificpolitical movements, here we have problems. It's often difficult to movepeople to action. But we have to keep in mind that we had an era oftotalitarian government, when all political rights were reduced to voting'the right way,' and then the stormy 90s, when political intrigues andmake-believe presidential elections made people lose faith. It's a difficultissue. But I think that overall the situation is improving."
When I asked him to explain, he said that people have been taking moreinitiative. "Look at the movement against high-rise construction projects.They always pushed such projects through in Irkutsk, brazenly, but then themovement [against them] started, and these grandmothers began to put up afight. Of course if we dig deeper we'll probably find that they havedifferent political views, or don't have much of an idea about differentpolitical parties, but the fact that they stand up for their rights to memeans there is politics involved. It so happens that many novice politicianstry to build their career on such movements, because they represent a realforce. The issues involved cause a visceral public reaction."
Our interview took place on a porch in a courtyard outside of theadministrative court building. The spot felt strange - the building thathouses the administrative court of Irkutsk, and every building around it,look just like regular apartment buildings. As we talked, one of theanarchist activists came up to us to say that the case prior to Igor's hasjust been dismissed, for lack of evidence. I watched Igor walk into thebuilding, wondering why he cared so much.
Anarchist demonstrations and similar instances of public outcries may notseem than meaningful in the overall scheme of Russia's current history, butI agree with Igor that one has to look at them in the proper historicalcontext. It is only in such a context that they acquire real and importantmeaning. In contrast to the U.S. or countries of Western Europe, Russia hashad only glimpses of democracy. And whether one agrees with the idealsespoused by the Russian young men and women who want to abolish thegovernment, one has to admire their courage and hope that they will serve asan example to others to stand up for their beliefs.
Official site to Autonomous Action - Irkutsk:
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